In researching 3 Church of England secondary schools, Reed et al. (2002, p.60), discovered that the key factor identified by the headteachers of the schools in bringing about their transformation was hope.
Francis and Robbins (2005) looked at the relationship between spiritual health and attendance at Church of England schools. All the schools were in an urban environment. Francis and
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In the Bible, the word hope occurs 133 times in the Authorised King James Version and 174 times in the New International Version.
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Robbins analysed spiritual health in four domains: personal, communal, environmental and transcendental. In the personal and communal domains pupils at Church of England secondary schools recorded signs of lower spiritual health. They were less likely to find life worth living and they were less confident in their relationships with others. For example, only 64% of pupils attending Church of England secondary schools found a purpose to life compared with 69% attending non-denominational schools. Some of these findings are counter-intuitive and go against the notion that pupils in schools with a Christian ethos have a greater sense of hope, purpose and resilience based on their faith. However, Francis believes that the lower signs of spiritual health are due to the fact that Church of England schools in an urban environment are more likely to be working with disadvantaged pupils. In this sense the fact that the gap was
relatively small may be an indicator that Church of England schools were adding value to pupils’
spiritual health and actually bringing hope and purpose to an otherwise less hopeful urban community.
More positive outcomes for resilience in Church schools were recorded by Francis and Penny (2013). In analysing 15 State-funded Anglican schools the researchers found a stronger belief in God and higher scores for questions on personal well-being amongst pupils from these Anglican schools compared with the responses from the pupils in non-denominational schools. However, it must be added that the difference was very marginal and in some aspects there was no difference at all. For example, 17% of pupils at Anglican schools reported that they did not feel worth much as a person which is exactly the same statistic as pupils from the non- denominational schools in the sample.
However an important comparison can be made between resilience in religious schools when considering other types of Christian school. In the same year as the first study above on Church of England schools within the State sector, Francis (2005b) researched schools which were part of the Independent Christian Schools movement. Here Francis found that fewer pupils reported feeling depressed or said that they had considered suicide compared with pupils at non-denominational schools. Crucially here, 75% of pupils said that they felt that they had a sense of purpose in life compared with 52% of pupils attending non-denominational schools. This research has been supported by Francis, Penny and Baker (2012) who noted the positive spiritual health and resilience found in the new Independent Christian Schools and, to a lesser extent, Church schools when compared with Community schools. Significantly this latter study also makes explicit links with the work of Jeynes in the United States. Like Jeynes, the authors suggest that faith schools can contribute to improved services in community schools through greater spiritual health and resilience.
Aside from Jeynes, there are further studies in North America noting the greater resilience of pupils found in faith-based schooling. Cardus (2011) found that Protestant Christian school graduates had a strong sense of direction in their lives and reported greater confidence in their abilities to navigate the challenges of life. Of all the different categories researched by the survey, the graduates of Protestant Christian schools showed the greatest general resilience.
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The survey suggests that this may be due to an increased reliance on prayer and following scripture (ibid., p.24).
The juxtaposition of all these studies raises interesting questions, once again, about the effect from home. With a higher proportion of pupils in the Independent Christian Schools in the UK and private religious schools in North America coming from Church families, it would be reasonable to deduce that this had an impact on these results. Moreover as a result of greater involvement from the Christian community of parents in the non-State schools, it is equally reasonable to suggest that the explicit Christian ethos of these schools is stronger. A similar conclusion can be reached about Catholic schools in England (chapter 4 section V). However these were all different studies with different samples of pupils in different contexts and with different socio-economic reference points. To identify the precise causes of the difference in resilience between the various types of school remains difficult.
According to Deakin Crick (2006) success in learning depends on developing 7 attributes (or ‘dimensions’) of learning power. Among these 7 dimensions is the dimension of resilience. Deakin-Crick and Jelfs (2011) build on this theory to analyse learning in a faith-based secondary school. Their conclusion is that success in learning may be due to nurturing spiritual development in addition to knowledge of the curriculum (ibid., p.212). This spiritual
development will incorporate a sense of something ‘greater than ourselves’. In the context of a
Church school it will also link to a community and a tradition which will enable there to be a greater sense of purpose, hope and resilience. Although Deakin-Crick and Jelfs do not specifically link spiritual development and resilience to learning in Church schools, their choice of a Church school implies that they feel that such schools may be more open to spiritual development in the curriculum.
The spiritual nature of Church schools to develop resilience is also noted by Chadwick (2012): “The presence of Church schools, as history has shown, can have an enormous impact. The pressure is always there for education to be solely driven by economic and utilitarian pressures, but the unapologetic presence of Church schools can be an appropriate counterpoise. Their accent on spiritual and moral flourishing builds social and emotional capital contributing to
community and individual well-being and resilience.” (Chadwick, 2012, p.9)